CHAPTER 41. The End of the War, 1864-1865

THE END OF THE WAR, 1864-1865

422. Grant in Command of all the Armies.--The Vicksburg and Chattanooga campaigns marked out Grant for the chief command. Hitherto the Union forces had acted on no well-thought-out plan. Now Grant was appointed Lieutenant General and placed in command of all the armies of the United States (March, 1864). He decided to carry on the war in Virginia in person. Western operations he intrusted to Sherman, with Thomas in command of the Army of the Cumberland. Sheridan came with Grant to Virginia and led the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac. We will first follow Sherman and Thomas and the Western armies.

423. The Atlanta Campaign, 1864.--Sherman had one hundred thousand veterans, led by Thomas, McPherson, and Schofield. Joseph E. Johnston, who succeeded Bragg, had fewer men, but he occupied strongly fortified positions. Yet week by week Sherman forced him back till, after two months of steady fighting, Johnston found himself in the vicinity of Atlanta. This was the most important manufacturing center in the South. The Confederates must keep Atlanta if they possibly could. Johnston plainly could not stop Sherman. So Hood was appointed in his place, in the expectation that he would fight. Hood fought his best. Again and again he attacked Sherman only to be beaten off with heavy loss. He then abandoned Atlanta to save his army. From May to September Sherman lost twenty-two thousand men, but the Confederates lost thirty-five thousand men and Atlanta too.

424. Plans of Campaign.--Hood now led his army northward to Tennessee. But Sherman, instead of following him, sent only Thomas and Schofield. Sherman knew that the Confederacy was a mere shell. Its heart had been destroyed. What would be the result of a grand march through Georgia to the seacoast, and then northward through the Carolinas to Virginia? Would not this unopposed march show the people of the North, of the South, and of Europe that further resistance was useless? Sherman thought that it would, and that once in Virginia he could help Grant crush Lee. Grant agreed with Sherman and told him to carry out his plans. But first we must see what happened to Thomas and Hood.

425. Thomas and Hood, 1864.--Never dreaming that Sherman was not in pursuit, Hood marched rapidly northward until he had crossed the Tennessee. He then spent three weeks in resting his tired soldiers and in gathering supplies. This delay gave Thomas time to draw in recruits. At last Hood attacked Schofield at Franklin on November 30, 1864. Schofield retreated to Nashville, where Thomas was with the bulk of his army, and Hood followed. Thomas took all the time he needed to complete his preparations. Grant felt anxious at his delay and ordered him to fight. But Thomas would not fight until he was ready. At length, on December 15, he struck the blow, and in two days of fighting destroyed Hood's whole army. This was the last great battle in the West.

426. Marching through Georgia.--Destroying the mills and factories of Atlanta, Sherman set out for the seashore. He had sixty thousand men with him. They were all veterans and marched along as if on a holiday excursion. Spreading out over a line of sixty miles, they gathered everything eatable within reach. Every now and then they would stop and destroy a railroad. This they did by taking up the rails, heating them in the middle on fires of burning sleepers, and then twisting them around the nearest trees. In this way they cut a gap sixty miles long in the railroad communication between the half-starved army of northern Virginia and the storehouses of southern Georgia. On December 10, 1864, Sherman reached the sea. Ten days later he captured Savannah and presented it to the nation as a Christmas gift. Sherman and Thomas between them had struck a fearful blow at the Confederacy. How had it fared with Grant?

427. Grant in Virginia, 1864.--Grant had with him in Virginia the Army of the Potomac under Meade, the Ninth Corps under Burnside, and a great cavalry force under Sheridan. In addition General Butler was on the James River with some thirty thousand men. Lee had under his orders about one-half as many soldiers as had Grant. In every other respect the advantage was on his side. Grant's plan of campaign was to move by his left from the Rappahannock southeastwardly. He expected to push Lee southward and hoped to destroy his army. Butler, on his part, was to move up the James. By this plan Grant could always be near navigable water and could in this way easily supply his army with food and military stores. The great objection to this scheme of invasion was that it gave Lee shorter lines of march to all important points. This fact and their superior knowledge of the country gave the Confederates an advantage which largely made up for their lack in numbers.

428. The Wilderness, May, 1864.--On May 4 and 5 the Union army crossed the Rapidan and marched southward through the Wilderness. It soon found itself very near the scene of the disastrous battle of Chancellorsville (p. 335). The woods were thick and full of underbrush. Clearings were few, and the roads were fewer still. On ground like this Lee attacked the Union army. Everything was in favor of the attacker, for it was impossible to foresee his blows, or to get men quickly to any threatened spot. Nevertheless Grant fought four days. Then he skillfully removed the army and marched by his left to Spotsylvania Court House.

429. Spotsylvania, May, 1864.--Lee reached Spotsylvania first and fortified his position. For days fearful combats went on. One point in the Confederate line, called the Salient, was taken and retaken over and over again. The loss of life was awful, and Grant could not push Lee back. So on May 20 he again set out on his march by the left and directed his army to the North Anna. But Lee was again before him and held such a strong position that it was useless to attack him.

430. To the James, June, 1864.--Grant again withdrew his army and resumed his southward march. But when he reached Cold Harbor, Lee was again strongly fortified. Both armies were now on the ground of the Peninsular Campaign. For two weeks Grant attacked again and again. Then on June 11 he took up his march for the last time. On June 15 the Union soldiers reached the banks of the James River below the junction of the Appomattox. But, owing to some misunderstanding, Petersburg had not been seized. So Lee established himself there, and the campaign took on the form of a siege. In these campaigns from the Rapidan to the James, Grant lost in killed, wounded, and missing sixty thousand men. Lee's loss was much less--how much less is not known.

431. Petersburg, June-December, 1864.--Petersburg guarded the roads leading from Richmond to the South. It was in reality a part of the defenses of Richmond. For if these roads passed out of Confederate control, the Confederate capital would have to be abandoned. It was necessary for Lee to keep Petersburg. Grant, on the other hand, wished to gain the roads south of Petersburg. He lengthened his line; but each extension was met by a similar extension of the Confederate line. This process could not go on forever. The Confederacy was getting worn out. No more men could be sent to Lee. Sooner or later his line would become so weak that Grant could break through. Then Petersburg and Richmond must be abandoned. Two years before, when Richmond was threatened by McClellan, Lee had secured the removal of the Army of the Potomac by a sudden movement toward Washington (p. 321). He now detached Jubal Early with a formidable force and sent him through the Shenandoah Valley to Washington.

432. Sheridan's Valley Campaigns, 1864.--The conditions now were very unlike the conditions of 1862. Now, Grant was in command instead of McClellan or Pope. He controlled the movements of all the armies without interference from Washington, and he had many more men than Lee. Without letting go his hold on Petersburg, Grant sent two army corps by water to Washington. Early was an able and active soldier, but he delayed his attack on Washington until soldiers came from the James. He then withdrew to the Shenandoah Valley. Grant now gave Sheridan forty thousand infantry and fifteen thousand cavalry, and sent him to the Valley with orders to drive Early out and to destroy all supplies in the Valley which could be used by another Southern army. Splendidly Sheridan did his work. At one time, when he was away, the Confederates surprised the Union army. But, hearing the roar of the battle, Sheridan rode rapidly to the front. As he rode along, the fugitives turned back. The Confederates, surprised in their turn, were swept from the field and sent whirling up the Valley in wild confusion (October 19, 1864). Then Sheridan destroyed everything that could be of service to another invading army and rejoined Grant at Petersburg. In the November following this great feat of arms, Lincoln was reëlected President.

433. The Blockade and the Cruisers, 1863-64.--The blockade had now become stricter than ever. For by August, 1864, Farragut had carried his fleet into Mobile Bay and had closed it to commerce. Sherman had taken Savannah. Early in 1865 Charleston was abandoned, for Sherman had it at his mercy, and Terry captured Wilmington. The South was now absolutely dependent on its own resources, and the end could not be far off. On the open sea, with England's aid a few vessels flew the Confederate flag. The best known of these vessels was the Alabama. She was built in England, armed with English guns, and largely manned by Englishmen. On June 19, 1864, the United States ship Kearsarge sank her off Cherbourg, France. Englishmen were also building two ironclad battleships for the Confederates. But the American minister at London, Mr. Charles Francis Adams, said that if they were allowed to sail, it would be "war." The English government thereupon bought the vessels.

434. Sherman's March through the Carolinas, 1865.--Early in 1865 Sherman set out on the worst part of his great march. He now directed his steps northward from Savannah toward Virginia. The Confederates prepared to meet him. But Sherman set out before they expected him, and thus gained a clear path for the first part of his journey. Joseph E. Johnston now took command of the forces opposed to Sherman and did everything he could to stop him. At one moment it seemed as if he might succeed. He almost crushed the forward end of Sherman's army before the rest of the soldiers could be brought to its rescue. But Sherman's veterans were too old soldiers to be easily defeated. They first beat back the enemy in front, and when another force appeared in the rear they jumped to the other side of their field breastworks and defeated that force also. Night then put an end to the combat, and by morning the Union force was too strong to be attacked. Pressing on, Sherman reached Goldsboro' in North Carolina. There he was joined by Terry from Wilmington and by Schofield from Tennessee. Sherman now was strong enough to beat any Confederate army. He moved to Raleigh and completely cut Lee's communications with South Carolina and Georgia, April, 1865.

435. Appomattox, April, 1865.--The end of the Confederacy was now plainly in sight. Lee's men were starving. They were constantly deserting either to go to the aid of their perishing families or to obtain food from the Union army. As soon as the roads were fit for marching, Grant set his one hundred and twenty thousand men once more in motion. His object was to gain the rear of Lee's army and to force him to abandon Petersburg. A last despairing attack on the Union center only increased Grant's vigor. On April 1 Sheridan with his cavalry and an infantry corps seized Five Forks in the rear of Petersburg and could not be driven away. Petersburg and Richmond were abandoned. Lee tried to escape to the mountains. But now the Union soldiers marched faster than the starving Southerners. Sheridan, outstripping them, placed his men across their path at Appomattox Court House. There was nothing left save surrender. The soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia, now only thirty-seven thousand strong, laid down their arms, April 9, 1865. Soon Johnston surrendered, and the remaining small isolated bands of Confederates were run down and captured.

436. Lincoln murdered, April 14, 1865.--The national armies were victorious. President Lincoln, never grander or wiser than in the moment of victory, alone stood between the Southern people and the Northern extremists clamoring for vengeance. On the night of April 14 he was murdered by a sympathizer with slavery and secession. No one old enough to remember the morning of April 15, 1865, will ever forget the horror aroused in the North by this unholy murder. In the beginning Lincoln had been a party leader. In the end the simple grandeur of his nature had won for him a place in the hearts of the American people that no other man has ever gained. He was indeed the greatest because the most typical of Americans. Vice-President Andrew Johnson, a war Democrat from Tennessee, became President. The vanquished secessionists were soon to taste the bitter dregs of the cup of defeat.

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